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Clara and Luke are living a pretty good life in London, both young professionals who met working for the same company. They’re in love, they’ve moved in together. Then one day, Luke just disappears. Days go by, the police get involved, but no one knows what could have happened. And while it’s heartbreaking for Clara, it’s particularly tragic for Luke’s parents, warm and wonderful people who have felt like family to Clara, because 20 years earlier, their oldest child, Emily, just left one day … and never came home.
Clara, sick with worry, finally decides she’s going to try to start looking into some of Luke’s past girlfriends, because she finds on his computer that he’s received hundreds of disturbing texts and emails from a woman who is clearly unhinged and upset. What she finds out as she talks to some of these women isn’t necessarily helpful in the investigation. Or maybe it is. But she does find out some things that make her wonder how well she knew him.
The story alternates between the current day involving Luke’s disappearance and a few decades earlier, with the story of a young mother, Beth, who is worried her small daughter is sociopathic. Hannah is so young, but she doesn’t connect with her parents; she seems to be deliberately causing pain and problems in the people around her, enjoying the havoc, and it’s very disturbing. But Beth is harboring a secret, and it’s preventing her from being able to get help for Hannah — if professional intervention can even help her.
For much of the book, the stories don’t seem to intersect, and readers are left wondering, trying to piece together the possible connections. And then they do, and the results are explosive.
This novel is one of psychological suspense; the characters are dealing with secrets that are eating away at them, the effects radiating out into their relationships. Hannah is a dark and menacing figure, particularly because she is so young and exhibiting such disturbing behaviors.
I enjoyed The Lies We Told, turning pages eagerly to see how it would all come together. It was interesting to get a few different points of view, including one near the end that was pretty brief, but I thought it was kind of tacked-on rather than a natural, seamless part of the story. My one main wish was that the book didn’t have SO much bad language. It just seemed so unnecessary.
Rated: High. There were dozens of uses of strong language as well as more instances of moderate language. Sexual content was pretty limited; it just references sexual relationships but very few details. Violent references are brief.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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